PDA

View Full Version : Manteca parade honors medic wounded in Iraq



thedrifter
11-27-07, 08:31 AM
Posted on Tue, Nov. 27, 2007
Manteca parade honors medic wounded in Iraq
By INGA MILLER
imiller@modbee.com

last updated: November 27, 2007 03:13:10 AM

MANTECA -- Relatives hope wounded Navy medic Christopher Braley will be transferred to a hospital in California by Christmas.

The 22-year-old lost his eye during a September explosion in Iraq and has had surgery to relieve brain swelling and to rebuild his brow area.

He has spent the past two months at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. Doctors there are treating him for an infection around a titanium plate in his brow that could require more surgery if it does not respond to medicine, said his grandmother, Jane Braley.

"We're really praying that he doesn't have to have another surgery," she said. "Because the next one he would have to have would be a very serious one. So we are praying the treatment worked."

She said if the treatment does work, doctors have told the family that Braley could be moved to the Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System by Christmas, to continue his recovery. He is mobile and has made a quarter-mile walk from his bed to a nearby McDonald's, she said.

Braley, a 2004 graduate of Sierra High School in Manteca and a standout basketball player, was traveling with Marines on a patrol Sept. 16 when gunfire broke out and an explosive detonated, sending shrapnel into his right eye and his brain, Jane Braley said.

He will be one of the honorary grand marshals at Manteca's holiday parade Saturday. Jane Braley and Christopher Braley's grandfather, Larry Braley, will ride in his place. The parade also will honor Marine Cpl. Charles O. Palmer II, 36, who was killed in Iraq on May 5. He was a 1989 graduate of Manteca High School.

Well-wishers can keep posted on Braley's progress by going to www.caringbridge.org and typing ChristopherBraley into the box labeled "Visit a CaringBridge website."

Bee staff writer Inga Miller can be reached at imiller@modbee.com or 578-2324.

Ellie